The Catcher and Katie
by theperksofbeingacharlie
Summary: Shortly after his finished stint in the sanitarium, Holden has a girlfriend, Katie*, who he's patching things up with. * Katie is an original character and the story begins abruptly but only so the, in my opinion, boring parts could be skipped.
1. Chapter 1

**Note**: _This is just something I felt like writing. It's with an original character that I made up for the sake of character development on behalf of Holden. It takes place shortly after him getting out of the "asylum", assuming he did._

I felt like a lousy goddamn boyfriend, if you wanna know the truth. I never bought her flowers and chocolates and all. I just moped around and felt sorry as hell for myself. I was even sorry for myself about this. I just couldn't be fixed, could I? When I was a little tike, smaller than I am now, I used to imagine myself as all these phony as hell things that I could really fathom back then and I thought I'd go on to be some sort of movie star like D.B. even if I knew I couldn't handle all that Hollywood stuff. It just seemed to be a real big gimmick. That's all it really is, just a real big gimmick.

The thing is, though, is that now I know exactly who I am and it's not at all who I wanna be. I guess every old mopey bastard has said that once or twice. What I am now is The Professional Moper: Holden Caulfield or my favorite, the Downer: Holden Caulfield. It all kind of sounds like it has a purpose but really it's just phony and stupid. It's stupid as hell, really, and so it's exactly me. Jesus christ, I guess the only thing I ever did score was old Katie and even then, I knew she thought me a failure. I was a goddamn failure. If you want me to be brutally honest, I wouldn't blame her if she left me right now. Just goddamn disappeared away from me and forgot about me totally, never to hear from me again. I wouldn't blame her at all. I would've left me long before now. No one can ever really stand to hear my ramblings.

"Katie?" I asked after her. She was still walking away from me and boy; was she fast. She just kept going and going, and going and she looked even smaller than she did up closer. She really was a small girl, small as hell. Her old man always makes this joke about when she turns sideways, she disappears. It kills me. He's phony as hell but he's got a couple good jokes up his sleeve, I guess.

Katie, though, she turned toward me. She really did and it surprised the hell out of me. I had to take a seat on the bench I was standing near because her beauty took me aback, it really did. That, and I thought she'd just disappear off that sidewalk and never even think about that crazy depressed rambling boy Holden ever again. I really did.

But she started walking towards me and these city lights were hitting the side of her face and all and she started looking even more beautiful than I remember her. Her knee-length dress was just swaying back and forth and I wondered if she was moving, too. Hell, it didn't matter. What did, though, is that she was coming back and I guess I needed to think up a good excuse as to why I'm such a goddamn phony.

"Yeah?" Not even stern at all. Boy, she was sly and she was damn graceful about it, too. It made me feel awful, it really did. Then, all of a sudden, I had this crazy thought: I should just skip out on Katie. Real easy and make it seem like I'm at fault because, really, she's too perfect and nice for me. I'm such a bad guy and I feel even more like a bad guy around her because she's so goddamn nice. I imagined my life without her and just going to the shops all the time and picking up those lonely guy video tapes and all and it seemed real lonely, like the Sanitarium lonely but I just took it with stride because at least she could find a good guy, some other phony that'll treat her like she deserves to be treated, like a damn diamond in the rough.


	2. Chapter 2

So, here's the thing. I'm kind of real bad whenever it comes to words with girls. Exchanging them and all. I could tell you a hundred things right here and now but standing in front of Katie, I'm no good. I'm just no goddamn good.

"I uh..." I said to her, not real smooth at all. Boy, was I at a loss for words. "Let's go to the movies or something. Have a real good time. I've got about thirty dollars in my pocket and that's more than enough for the both of us. What do you say?"

She stayed real quiet. Her expression was real hard to read. I hate it when girls do that, and they're goddamn good at it, too. Take a real emotion and they could turn it into something else quick. Girls must have a special magic skill at being elusive or something. I'm not trying to give them too much credit or anything, just that when it comes to things like this - you don't know whether or not they're gonna hit you in the face or take you by the hand and skip away. You just don't know.

"I know I'm a real phony and all but come on, just a movie. Just the cinema." I hated movies. I goddamn hated them more than anything but I had to do something. I had to tell her something, anything. Sometimes girls just need a word or two, then they're yours. If cinema was mine, I was sure to put it out there. Twice.

"You hate the cinema." That's all she said after that goddamn long.

"That's it?" I asked her. Flat out, boy, I wasn't in the mood for games. I started getting this real strange feeling of confidence. Like maybe I could control her or something now. I could say 'Hey, screw the cinema. Let's go have a cigarette at the theater' you know, or something kind of odd like that. Something no one would suggest doing, you know. So, I just said, "Well, let's botch the cinema then. Let's go some place. Any goddamn place. Standing her in this dumb old walkway, this stupid sidewalk, it's depressing the hell out of me. Right out of me." I told her.

"Let's go someplace, then."

"Alright, where?"

She shrugged like a little girl. I hate it when she does that. Her Dad is always on her for not acting her age. I mean, sometimes she's smarter than you're average girl but I mean how smart is the average girl, really? Around here, you could give them ten bucks to do a chicken dance. Some girls are real shallow but old Katie is alright, I guess. I mean, how worse could she get? You give her a slice of cake or something that a real little kid would like and she was yours. That's when I had a real bright idea.

"Let's go to the park, then. We'll smoke something and start feeling better."

She did. She came right with me like I told her to and that meant she had to. She barely spoke on the way there, though. You could tell she was still kind of upset with me. I should probably tell you why all of this happened in the first place.

Katie was a real stickler for the truth and she thought I'd bent some truths which I admit, I am pretty bad at but it's nothing I can't work on. I feel like lately all I do is work on myself to better me for other goddamn people. Maybe I should just go off on them and help nobody. Some days I want to do that but it would maybe alter my idea of being the catcher in the rye. I'm sure you remember a thing or two about that. Right, so if I help some kids and all and then I'm a real prude to everyone else, that would just defeat the hell outta the purpose.

So, anyway. She thought I'd bent some truths but I really, really didn't. I mean it. And so I'm just sort of paying for what she thought happened which people make you do a lot. They accuse you of some dumb old thing. Really any old thing, people can really get away with some stuff these days. Anyway, and then you're paying for it mostly because they feel bad for accusing you. My folks say it's like some pseudo-psychology or something another. I don't pay much attention. Stuff like that kind of bores me. It's real boring, actually. A lot like the cinema.


End file.
